CheckaTrade | MyBuilder | RatedPeople | TrustaTrader etc - Who's with what and why?

Post new thread

Discuss CheckaTrade | MyBuilder | RatedPeople | TrustaTrader etc - Who's with what and why? in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Dan said:
CheckaTrade | MyBuilder | RatedPeople | TrustaTrader etc - Who's with what and why?

Thought I'd start a poll off to see if we can see who's with what type of rate-my-builder website, if at all. And which ones seem to work, and if they do, why etc.

I've also put some other options there to see where people are spending their time and money on marketing right now, should they not be spending it with the big few common names.

Current options are:-
My personal opinion on this, after reading so many threads on all our forums, is that they're a middle-man where one isn't needed. People who need jobs doing on their homes could search Google before they came about, and they'd find tradespeoples own websites. And it all worked fine. The full amount of money that the tradesperson charged went to their business. And it wouldn't cost much to get a website online and running well.

Now though, there's an annual charge, or a percentage of the job, going to a company that's spending millions on advertising and has directors driving around in expensive cars, salesmen on commission selling to existing customers and new ones, trying to get more listing features or whatever.

You can get yourself a website using Wordpress, and update it yourself. Optimise it quite easy. Rank in Google naturally (no paying for ads), and get business coming in from it.

Or you can work on getting your listing with one of these companies up. Some of them encourage you to email your existing customers. Which obviously means there's no assurances the feedback actually comes from genuine customers then, you just get 20 free gmail accounts and send yourself the link to leave 10 star feedback so that when people search the website, your listing looks awesome and your feedback is spot on. Not seen a single listing ever with bad feedback on any of them.

That all said, I've not got a listing with a single one of them.

So I thought I'd run a poll, and have this handy thread for others to read and contribute to ongoing.

Feel free to discuss anything at all, pricing, experience, feedback, customers, type of work coming from them, whatever.

Please be constructive should you have criticism.

If a company you're with isn't in the poll, let me know, and I'll add it.

Please feel free to vote on as many of the options as you use yourself for your marketing.

CheckaTrade | MyBuilder | RatedPeople | TrustaTrader etc - Who's with what and why?
Click to expand...

None they are all crap
Bark is the only one that looks ok but you cant trust any reviews online these days or any tradesmen - the ones i have got in for quotes before i do the work myself is legion and every one is awful except for 2 out of 23 that is some bad percentage.

Its sad to say but its very hard to find any tradesman who does a 101% job these days
A site with genuine good tradesguys would be great

This sit from what i have gleaned has a superb number of really knowledgeable and helpful guys
Perhaps you should set one up yourself!
I personally have never employed a tradesman ever as my dad taught me plumbing buliding car mechanics etc etc etc but i know my neighbours would pay to have access to good tradesmen as virtually 100% of them have had bad experiences

They recently had a hamilton accie in who claimed he was plumbing and electirican and fitted a simple led pir outside light to existing wiring and charged £260 for less than an hours work - the light then failed after less than 2 weeks and yip he has not come back so they had to spend more money on another guy who came and fitted another light - no idea how long it will last either as it looks cheap chinese pish as well!
 
Never needed to use any of the listed routes to market. I am on NextDoor, but only for general village things.
Always just relied on a cheap advert in the Village magazine and word of mouth. I don't want to line someone else's pocket in a race to the lowest price.
 
Never used any of them to be honest so I cant vote.
All my work comes from word of mouth and contacts I've built up over the last 20 years, I only do Industrial and commercial and I think all the above are geared towards domestic trades.
 
My builder.....complete con you can’t even verify the jobs you are bidding for exist and even if you manage to win the bidding there’s no assurances the customer will even talk to you, some very bad tradesmen on there as well

Trust a trader.....couldn’t organise ---- up in a brewery....they approached me with an offer of free membership, so I thought why not, first job comes through contact with customer made etc and then they block me from talking to the customer because they havnt run any checks, why let me speak and arrange things with a customer and then stop me? Waited two weeks and nothing from them.......never agian

Check a trade....I can’t lie I’ve had nothing but good experience with them, I have recently gone back on there after leaving for no other reason than I had work booked up for 6 months in advance so didn’t see the point in paying £140 when I couldn’t take anymore work, even now after a months free trial I can’t keep up with it, doing multiple trades helps a lot as I can turn up for one small job and end up quoting for a lot more..

Nextdoor neighbour app is another one I pick up bits and pieces off of but being local I end doing the little jobs off there for free or a cup of tea for an oldun when I can squeeze it in...

Use a free webpage on face book which seems to work really well and I’m told I have instagram and twitter accounts that my daughters are running for me....

I would like a more professional web site but not sure I need it as I have no intention of being to big and drowning in stress....life’s to short ?
 
sln8458 said:
I am about to contact the latest electrician, found via MyBuilder, for the next job, we'll see.
All the tradesmen I have used via MyBuilder have all been excellent.

SteveN
Click to expand...

Thats the problem with all this. Word of mouth is great, if someone is talking to you; perhaps the next best thing is to go blind into one of these web sites, with the advantages & pitfalls previously mentioned. What did we do for these instances, before the world wide web!
 
There's not much for me to add that hasn't been said already. Word-of-mouth and getting into bed with other local trades such as plumbers and builders are best for business, but neither is quick and easy if you're just starting out. These days, anyone should have a website, even if it's a basic affair knocked up using a tool such as Wix or that you pay a third-party like Yell to create and host. If you're a one-man-band, include a picture of yourself and your van, and show your contact details including the registered office address so potential clients can see you're legitimate and that you look like you're doing the business.

The likes of Twitter, Facebook, Nextdoor, and Instagram are also good ways to show off your work, connect with your peers and to promote yourself to potential local customers. We're not all comfortable with such platforms of course, and if you're posting a picture of your work then you'd better check it's right or risk being torn apart! Social media can be stressful and turn toxic, so only use it if it works for you.

As for these middleman operations, I'm on record as being against them, but I appreciate they work for others. Most are expensive and they may jack up the price once your profile has too many reviews for you to lose, but they offer a quick way to build up a reputation, at least for the users of their individual sites. If you get on with them and the revenue they generate outweighs the overhead of membership, then it makes business sense. Personally, I don't want to make a bunch of slick kids sitting in plush offices even richer from the sweat off my own back.

One issue I had as a member of Local Heroes a few years ago was that without a direct interface with the client, it could be hard to suss out quite what the job was. It's all very well a job being posted saying 'new socket required', but I need more information to give any idea of a cost, and going through a third-party rather than being able to speak with a client directly was a pain. These days, I'm with Which? Trusted Traders, and although it doesn't get me much work directly, their logo on my estimate paperwork probably helps to swing the bigger jobs such as rewires my way. I also use their review function exclusively now as my GMB, Yell, FreeIndex and TrustPilot pages were all vandalised by fake reviews and had to go. I no longer show in a cold Google search anymore, but I don't think I ever got much business that way anyway. I did once pay for Adwords, and it was the quickest thirty quid I lost outside of happy hour at my local. It was pretty much Google coming back saying "Yep, we've promoted you somewhere, now watch the calls come in!"

They didn't.

Freeindex and Yell are good directory services to have a free listing on, but another good source for local work is a parish magazine if you have such. Better than a leaflet drop, it goes through all your neighbours letterboxes, and everyone looks inside. The old dears use it like Google as their tradesperson search, those new to the area go by it and even those who've been here for years will pick up on your presence. Again, it's good to show a picture of you and your van so they can put a face to the business and clock you going around town. You want to get the locals used to seeing you, and it pays to have a liveried van. If you live in a city, check surrounding villages on your patch for such publications.

These 'checked', 'rated' and 'trusted' sites usually only perform the most basic of checks, and they then let members loose onto their client base who will ultimately end up as the ones who do report back as to whether anyone is trustworthy or not. If not, the client has their pants pulled down and none of these sites will be taking any responsibility for it. As others have said, you end up competing with builders and kitchen/bathroom fitters for electrical work, and we all know people usually just want something cheap that works, never mind if it's actually safe in the event of a fault...
 
I've never paid for any on-line advertising. I bat off any cold calls asking if I want to sign up to anything... my view is that if they have found my number, so can potential clients.

I wrote my own web page in static HTML - it just has my logo, a mug shot, and a few words about where I serve, the sort of work I do, Terms of Business, and the kind of person I am.

I have a Facebook page, on which I have photos of work done, occasional posts about dodgy stuff I've found, and reviews left by customers.

I have a Google "My Business" page (which is free), with a couple of photos, and a few customer reviews.

Although I don't engage much directly on social media beyond the odd Facebook post (roughly one a month), a lot of my clients do... there are groups for local people to let others know what's going on, have a moan about the coucil/yoofs/roadworks, ask for recommendations etc; when my name pops up, it's handy to have a Facebook or web page for people to land on, peruse, then contact me.

To be honest, I'm still really surprised when people say, "I found you on the internet" because I have such very low expectations... an HTML page that was last updated a year ago, it's not exactly state-of-the-art "SEO" is it?!

Every time I email an invoice and certs (or receipt and certs if the customer pays by cash or cheque), I sign off with:

PS If you feel able to leave a testimonial for my work, you can do so on Facebook or Google: (then the links).

That, word of mouth, and some traditional paid advertising in local free magazines has worked well for me so far. Your mileage may vary :)
 
I've been through quite a few '3rd party' on line vetting agenices, and worked for a number of '3rd party' national maintenance companies were I am.

I've concluded them a waste of time, and so we have a 'no 3rd parties' clause now

~S~
[automerge]1576018670[/automerge]
I guess that's a bit terse of a reply.

The trades were proliferated with all manner of internet 3rd parties here after the last housing crash

They knew we were hungry, would sign onto anything

The problem is, they not only started vetting us, they evolved to creating standards for us as well

It got a tad to 'big brother' for many of us you see

~S~
 
Last edited:
Sisyphus said:
I've been through quite a few '3rd party' on line vetting agenices, and worked for a number of '3rd party' national maintenance companies were I am.

I've concluded them a waste of time, and so we have a 'no 3rd parties' clause now

~S~
[automerge]1576018670[/automerge]
I guess that's a bit terse of a reply.

The trades were proliferated with all manner of internet 3rd parties here after the last housing crash

They knew we were hungry, would sign onto anything

The problem is, they not only started vetting us, they evolved to creating standards for us as well

It got a tad to 'big brother' for many of us you see

~S~
Click to expand...

Oooo we haven't quite got that far yet here. They don't check anything at all but say on their marketing and adverts online that they do.

Leading to disco Dave's who can wire their DJ equipment up well thinking they can now install solar panels and house rewires. And they don't get taken off the rate my bodge it and dodge it type website they just won't send the link to leave a review to the ones they know will leave bad feedback on their listing.

Very flawed.

But wouldn't like it go the other way either.
 
Never used,or wanted to use,any of these carry-ons. They all work on the principle of hope and dilution.

I respect that some others may have had some luck,but i would not recommend anyone,especially those at the start of their SE journey,to sign up,with a very hungry flea who steers the host,to some of the worst customers possible... :)
 
It’s word of mouth mainly with me. Existing friends have passed my details on.
I do have a Facebook page, and a website but don’t use any of the above3rd party services.
Too many scare stories on this forum about them.
I’ve joined nextdoor.co.uk just because one customer heard about me on there.
 
First post on these forums so first let me say hi.

Hi.

I'm technically a contractor so I always have work on the books - sometimes up to 18 months ahead so the last thing I should do is tout for more work (you start by trying to please everyone and end up pleasing no-one). However, a good friend who is gas safe guy uses trustatrader and checkatrade and he gets shedloads of work from both (nowadays mainly checkatrade as his rating is very high) so for individuals I can see how any of the options that give you more back than you give to them could be a good thing.

But there's a hitch: my friend is absolutely pants at what he does and only gets to look good by asking me and other quality tradesmen to do the work for him that is outside his expertise (that's about everything beyond soldering) so I personally think that there can't ever be a level playing field for subscribers. If you can get 5 stars for being shonky, I'm inclined to forget these companies even exist and prefer, like others have mentioned, to rely on recommendations and your own, personal advertising.

That's my tuppence and may I add that I'm very happy to be here with the civilised folk.
 
smokester said:
First post on these forums so first let me say hi.

Hi.

I'm technically a contractor so I always have work on the books - sometimes up to 18 months ahead so the last thing I should do is tout for more work (you start by trying to please everyone and end up pleasing no-one). However, a good friend who is gas safe guy uses trustatrader and checkatrade and he gets shedloads of work from both (nowadays mainly checkatrade as his rating is very high) so for individuals I can see how any of the options that give you more back than you give to them could be a good thing.

But there's a hitch: my friend is absolutely pants at what he does and only gets to look good by asking me and other quality tradesmen to do the work for him that is outside his expertise (that's about everything beyond soldering) so I personally think that there can't ever be a level playing field for subscribers. If you can get 5 stars for being shonky, I'm inclined to forget these companies even exist and prefer, like others have mentioned, to rely on recommendations and your own, personal advertising.

That's my tuppence and may I add that I'm very happy to be here with the civilised folk.
Click to expand...
Welcome aboard and thanks for posting!
 
Hi
I joined this forum more for advice from qualified sparkies. I’m not a qualified electrician, and the work I do is mainly like for like replacements for friends and family, and the odd additional socket in, or spur from, a ring mains. As such, I don’t use any such sites.
Cheers
Jon
 
Eddie1 said:
I have never used them no need if you do a good clean job, charge a proper price and treat you customer with respect you will get all your work from recommendation. I did for 35Years.
Click to expand...
Marti said:
In my early days I tried My Builder and Rated People. You have got to start SOMEWHERE to build the fabled word-of-mouth that everyone talks about. Both were a poor return. Race to the bottom prices and on occasions, I'd call a client, having paid for the contact, and discover the job wasn't worth anybody's time (repair a standard lamp). My profiles ticked all the boxes (photo's, reviews etc) but lost to price; the thing that really mattered.

I have heard a few good comments about Check-a-trade (one of the threads above is mine) but JEEZ! They need to review their fees 'cos I can't see they are worth it.

My cheapest work winner is a sign written van, followed by recommendation from friends or when I do a little job well. In the very early days; it's tough!

Also, you tend to drive nicely when your name and number are in bloody great letters on the van ;)
Click to expand...
powercare said:
We use our own Website and a local Internet marketing company to help promote our website for natural listings. We have been advised against the rating sites like that because they charge money for membership. any company does that will prioritise cash flow above all else. We were always advised to think what would I do in this situation and more often than not if you need something now you search on Google direct from your phone. I would chose a link relevant to my search rather than a website that requires further searches. It has worked well for us. but nothing beats good word of mouth for business so always go that extra mile for a client and they will remember.
Click to expand...
daz1965 said:
Hi Dan,
Fortunately never had to use any.
As others have said,I’ve heard good and bad regarding most of them.
If I have a quiet spell I normally stick an add in the local rag,and it brings in the small jobs to fill the diary up.
Another vote for word of mouth.
Click to expand...
I've added word of mouth to the options. :) You're allowed multiple choice too.
[automerge]1576065015[/automerge]
Lister1987 said:
Didn't know you were on here David, long time viewer, rare commenter, keep up the good vids, always give me a laugh
Click to expand...
Or me! @dseselectric welcome aboard. :)
 
Hi,i think that adding the "word of mouth" option,part way through the job,may skew results,slightly.

...Not that any of us,in this land,are phased by election or referendum confusion... ;)

I have met a fair few lads,who have said at one time or other,one of the mentioned pyramid schemes,had accounted for a large proportion of their work.

Most have admitted it was not worth the cost/hassle,and withdrew after a while.

It goes without saying,if you are signed up,some of the "customers" will use this knowledge,to drag in tradespeople,who would normally get that tingle,and swerve them.
 
PEG said:
Hi,i think that adding the "word of mouth" option,part way through the job,may skew results,slightly.

...Not that any of us,in this land,are phased by election or referendum confusion... ;)

I have met a fair few lads,who have said at one time or other,one of the mentioned pyramid schemes,had accounted for a large proportion of their work.

Most have admitted it was not worth the cost/hassle,and withdrew after a while.

It goes without saying,if you are signed up,some of the "customers" will use this knowledge,to drag in tradespeople,who would normally get that tingle,and swerve them.
Click to expand...
People can change their votes and remove or add other votes as and when they please.

I did say to let me know if there were any more to add. It was mainly online marketing but word of mouth a few people said so I added it. Only a few mind.
 
Having run my own limited company in the past (i've now retired) I used continuous newspaper advertising. The local clients (when asked how they found us) always said that "you are always in the paper" or "so & so said that you were good".
Thompson Local and Yell persistantly got our phone number wrong so never used them after the second time they got it wrong.

Having learn't that the Guild of Master Craftsmen's logo for a vehicle could be just purchased from them without any checks being done, and any advertising could put that logo on without any checks being made, I ignore that logo totally.
I did not believe it at first, so I tried it myself using a pseudonym, calling myself a Tree Surgeon (as far away from computing as I could think) and use a c/o address. I don't remember how much it cost me, but it was not a lot. All I did was fill out a form send it to them and a van sticker and paperwork duly arrived a week later.
I then had one of my employees ring them up to check if I was registered there, and they confirmed it. I have never believed that logo since.

In the past (whilst I was in business) I was asked several times to help 'build someones reputation' by writing how good they were. Unfortunately I did not agree with their opinion of how good they were, so I declined.
I have also been offered payments to write glowing reports about companies that I have never heard of and the work they do. Needless to say that did not happen.
I personally do not use such sites as the 'recommendations' on them are not reliable enough and are not always honest.
 
I avoid these websites as virtually all of my work comes through recommendation- word of mouth. But as I'm registered through Elecsa I'm also listed on the 'Trustmark' site, some customers have posted up some good reviews over the years and a few people contact me because of that, few and far between though.
 
Just an addition,to the debate,but i had Chekatrade leaflet drop through me door,today.

There are a large assortment of "approved" trades,alphabetically listed. Having lived in the area for my entire life,and liking to think i also have a finger on the pulse,so to speak,a great many were known.

Some are long standing outfits,2nd or 3rd generation,and sound.

But,there were around 6,who are charlatans,and would not be allowed anywhere near my circle of trust.

One mans view,in one area,but i would wager,not unique.
 
PEG said:
Just an addition,to the debate,but i had Chekatrade leaflet drop through me door,today.

There are a large assortment of "approved" trades,alphabetically listed. Having lived in the area for my entire life,and liking to think i also have a finger on the pulse,so to speak,a great many were known.

Some are long standing outfits,2nd or 3rd generation,and sound.

But,there were around 6,who are charlatans,and would not be allowed anywhere near my circle of trust.

One mans view,in one area,but i would wager,not unique.
Click to expand...
That's the bloody problem with them. We never know who they are. Customer doesn't know the difference.

I have something in the pipeline for our tradesmen we know are good. It's going to be free for both the customer and trader. No ads.

Been long overdue.
 
@Dan
Can we have a ,,,,, I'm fantastic and dont need any of the above as an option ??
 
None they are all crap

Its sad to say but its very hard to find any tradesman who does a 101% job these days
A site with genuine good tradesguys would be great

This sit from what i have gleaned has a superb number of really knowledgeable and helpful guys
Perhaps you should set one up yourself!
I personally have never employed a tradesman ever as my dad taught me plumbing buliding car mechanics etc etc etc but i know my neighbours would pay to have access to good tradesmen as virtually 100% of them have had bad experiences

They recently had a hamilton accie in who claimed he was plumbing and electirican and fitted a simple led pir outside light to existing wiring and charged £260 for less than an hours work - the light then failed after less than 2 weeks and yip he has not come back so they had to spend more money on another guy who came and fitted another light - no idea how long it will last either as it looks cheap chinese pish as well!

PS There are two great ones on youtube and they actually have the decency to reply and help me out when i need some advice!

Dereton - great plumber old school and a nice guy
Ultimate Handyman - Top builder and a nice guy too!!!
 
Gary Gemmell said:
None they are all crap

Its sad to say but its very hard to find any tradesman who does a 101% job these days
A site with genuine good tradesguys would be great

This sit from what i have gleaned has a superb number of really knowledgeable and helpful guys
Perhaps you should set one up yourself!
I personally have never employed a tradesman ever as my dad taught me plumbing buliding car mechanics etc etc etc but i know my neighbours would pay to have access to good tradesmen as virtually 100% of them have had bad experiences

They recently had a hamilton accie in who claimed he was plumbing and electirican and fitted a simple led pir outside light to existing wiring and charged £260 for less than an hours work - the light then failed after less than 2 weeks and yip he has not come back so they had to spend more money on another guy who came and fitted another light - no idea how long it will last either as it looks cheap chinese pish as well!

PS There are two great ones on youtube and they actually have the decency to reply and help me out when i need some advice!

Dereton - great plumber old school and a nice guy
Ultimate Handyman - Top builder and a nice guy too!!!
Click to expand...

It's a regular part of every day duties,sadly...

Went to a small holding,to fault find,on a job where the dude who did the original install,has evaporated. Straight away,i see some major errors,in the submain earthing,and subsequent circuits.

Informed the client,and their message regarding my findings,to the installer,gets an immediate call back,to say it is "all a matter of opinion..." and also,he will come directly,to see what was wrong.

No point flapping...got my drawings,pictures,etc,just in case i'm taking another trip to Sheffield,chatting to our safety friends :rolleyes:
 
I now rely on word of mouth and at present my customers are something like an 70% repeat customers. The rest are coming through my (rather crappy) website.

I have used 'local surveyors direct' which I paid per quote and they weren't bad. No other middle men. If a customer mentions checkatrade etc, I remind them that they are NOT the customer for these companies - the tradesman is, as he pays their bills (and there's no way they want to lose their money no matter how bad the tradesman is!)

My favourite source is google as it is all in your own hands. You choose how much you pay, where and when you want adverts shown and can pause it at any time. Only down side is, for good results, you need to spend sometime honing your adverts otherwise you will get people phoning you to fix their Volvo electrics because you haven't put autoelectrician as a non keyword (and at £ per call - ouch)
 
I've never paid for any form of advertising, majority of my work comes through word of mouth. I do have a Facebook page though which is free to set up and proven a very handy way of getting my name out there and getting recommendations.
 
Here check these pics of our so called electricians work
Spot the disasters

1) Used black cable cos it was all he had left in his van - no trunking or white cable to do the job properly
And how did i know - cos he just chucked his empty reel into my plastics bin

2) Drilled through the double glazing and yip its now lost its vacuum seal

3) Checkout those leccie tails in the cupboard - not even recessed behind the backer board and not soldered or properly connected just tied together i dont even think the tape is electrical - and the kid in our building puts his bike in tha tcupboard - those tails are live when the time clock switches on

3) Didnt even hoover up his drill mess
 

Attachments

  • Hall_Cupboard_Electrical_Work (1).jpg
    66.7 KB · Views: 14
  • Hall_Cupboard_Electrical_Work (2).jpg
    56.7 KB · Views: 14
  • Hall_Cupboard_Shit_Electrical_Works (3).jpg
    56.4 KB · Views: 13
Dan said:
CheckaTrade | MyBuilder | RatedPeople | TrustaTrader etc - Who's with what and why?

Thought I'd start a poll off to see if we can see who's with what type of rate-my-builder website, if at all. And which ones seem to work, and if they do, why etc.

I've also put some other options there to see where people are spending their time and money on marketing right now, should they not be spending it with the big few common names.

Current options are:-
My personal opinion on this, after reading so many threads on all our forums, is that they're a middle-man where one isn't needed. People who need jobs doing on their homes could search Google before they came about, and they'd find tradespeoples own websites. And it all worked fine. The full amount of money that the tradesperson charged went to their business. And it wouldn't cost much to get a website online and running well.

Now though, there's an annual charge, or a percentage of the job, going to a company that's spending millions on advertising and has directors driving around in expensive cars, salesmen on commission selling to existing customers and new ones, trying to get more listing features or whatever.

BBC covered a couple of them here: Fear over trusted trade website profiles - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42783279

You can get yourself a website using Wordpress, and update it yourself. Optimise it quite easy. Rank in Google naturally (no paying for ads), and get business coming in from it.

Or you can work on getting your listing with one of these companies up. Some of them encourage you to email your existing customers. Which obviously means there's no assurances the feedback actually comes from genuine customers then, you just get 20 free gmail accounts and send yourself the link to leave 10 star feedback so that when people search the website, your listing looks awesome and your feedback is spot on. Not seen a single listing ever with bad feedback on any of them.

That all said, I've not got a listing with a single one of them.

So I thought I'd run a poll, and have this handy thread for others to read and contribute to ongoing.

Feel free to discuss anything at all, pricing, experience, feedback, customers, type of work coming from them, whatever.

Please be constructive should you have criticism.

If a company you're with isn't in the poll, let me know, and I'll add it.

Please feel free to vote on as many of the options as you use yourself for your marketing.

CheckaTrade | MyBuilder | RatedPeople | TrustaTrader etc - Who's with what and why?
Click to expand...
Hi Dan,
Thanks for getting in touch.
Over the past few years, I've been registered on two such sites, MyBuilder (which I'm still on but hardly ever use) and Rated People (which I no longer belong to.)
I'm sure you know as well as I do how these sites work although there are minor differences on membership, bidding for jobs that are posted, etc.
I'm not a big fan because generally when jobs are posted. it a bit of a 'bun-fight' with other electricians applying for them and unless you're really quick off the mark, you could be way down the pecking order.
I will only really look at getting work via these sites if my job list dries up and things are a bit slow. Fortunately for me, over the past couple of years I have has enough work coming through via recommendations and referrals, so haven't needed to look on those sites for work.
I hope this feedback helps?

Regards,
Reggie17
 
dseselectric said:
without a direct interface with the client, it could be hard to suss out quite what the job was. It's all very well a job being posted saying 'new socket required', but I need more information to give any idea of a cost, and going through a third-party rather than being able to speak with a client directly was a pain.
Click to expand...
Sweary-free gospel from DS and spot on. How on earth can the most sugar'n'caffine soaked code monkey writing a portal page expect a realistic quote from job descriptions like "fit a socket" or "lights don't work"! Just asking a painter to paint the fron of my house while sober needed a paragraph - size, location, height, current finish etc!
 
My daughter found a handy man using one of those sites, and it was clear he did not know his own ability and tackled jobs he simply could not do, OK we all make errors, but when she tried to complain it became clear the site was nothing more than an advert, and they did not rate any of the tradesmen on their site.

With the exception of electrical scheme members and gas safe, people who join these rate a tradesman schemes are people who are short of work, people who are short of work are often short of work because they give a poor service, so in the main I would only use a rate a tradesmen site if I was really stuck, when I see some one is a member of one of these schemes I avoid them, and look elsewhere.

I would say if you do join, at least try and hid the fact your a member.

I know there are some people who were working for a large firm, and have decided to become a sole trader, and have not built up a word of mouth link to find them work, and these sites can get them started finding them jobs.

However I am writing as a customer, not a tradesman, if I want a tradesman in my new home, first port of call is the Pub, once I found the first tradesman I wanted, he recommended the next and so on.

So in the Pub told you want Tom, he is good and does not charge the earth, however once you are running and safe, it may take some time to get him back to finish the job, and they were spot on. You will not get that from rated web site, and if they do their job and show the bad reviews, well taking a long time to finish the job is not really a bad review, it means he has prioritised some one else because he has seen their job is urgent. Which is what he did for me.
 
Dan said:
Some similar threads:

www.electriciansforums.net

Trusted Trader / Bark / MyBuilder / CheckaTrade in a new area

Hi All, I have just moved to a new area, am self employed. Just wondering if anyone has had success advertising with Trusted Trader/Bark/MyBuilder/CheckaTrade etc?
www.electriciansforums.net www.electriciansforums.net

www.electriciansforums.net

Trust Mark, but can it be trusted???

I have noticed that if I search my business name on the trustmark site I cannot find it or rather their search engine fails to identify the business. I have taken this up with trustmark who have passed it to their technical team (who are the people who fd it up) who will look into it. A shame...
www.electriciansforums.net www.electriciansforums.net

www.electriciansforums.net

Apparently we are the most trusted trade!

This story came up on the news app on my tablet, apparently 80% of people in some which survey trusted electricians the most... We rank above plumbers thankfully... Makes you wonder then who they surveyed? As if we are so trusted why do so many people have funny eyes that go a bit crossed eyed...
www.electriciansforums.net www.electriciansforums.net

www.electriciansforums.net

Trust a trader, checkatrade, rated people

Hi guys, Wondering what your thoughts where on these schemes has anyone signed up to these and got any work from them? They seem really expensive and not sure if your even guaranteed the work. They seem a good idea but are they worth it? Read some reviews online saying some schemes where a...
www.electriciansforums.net www.electriciansforums.net

www.electriciansforums.net

Rated People, Trust a Trader, My Builder etc

Does anyone on here use Rated People, Trust a Trader, My Builder etc, if so how easy is it to get work from ? and what one do you feel is the best ?
www.electriciansforums.net www.electriciansforums.net

www.electriciansforums.net

Trust a Trader vs Rated People

Has anyone out there subscribed to both and can offer any views and advise on Trust a Trader. I am registered with Rated People and all the short comings assosioated with them - there are loads of threads on this subject. I have recently made enquiries recently with Trust a Trader and first...
www.electriciansforums.net www.electriciansforums.net

www.electriciansforums.net

Checkatrade,Mybuilder, Myhammer ratedpeople etc etc.. Your views?

Are they amu good as I am thinking if joining and one of their reps is coming next week!! Keep the cash and have xmas or spend it and have a bonanza Xmas next year?!?!!?
www.electriciansforums.net www.electriciansforums.net

www.electriciansforums.net

Checkatrade,Mybuilder, Myhammer ratedpeople etc etc.. Your views?

Are they amu good as I am thinking if joining and one of their reps is coming next week!! Keep the cash and have xmas or spend it and have a bonanza Xmas next year?!?!!?
www.electriciansforums.net www.electriciansforums.net

www.electriciansforums.net

Checkatrade,Mybuilder, Myhammer ratedpeople etc etc.. Your views?

Are they amu good as I am thinking if joining and one of their reps is coming next week!! Keep the cash and have xmas or spend it and have a bonanza Xmas next year?!?!!?
www.electriciansforums.net www.electriciansforums.net

www.electriciansforums.net

Checkatrade,Mybuilder, Myhammer ratedpeople etc etc.. Your views?

Are they amu good as I am thinking if joining and one of their reps is coming next week!! Keep the cash and have xmas or spend it and have a bonanza Xmas next year?!?!!?
www.electriciansforums.net www.electriciansforums.net

www.electriciansforums.net

Checkatrade,Mybuilder, Myhammer ratedpeople etc etc.. Your views?

Are they amu good as I am thinking if joining and one of their reps is coming next week!! Keep the cash and have xmas or spend it and have a bonanza Xmas next year?!?!!?
www.electriciansforums.net www.electriciansforums.net

www.electriciansforums.net

Checkatrade,Mybuilder, Myhammer ratedpeople etc etc.. Your views?

Are they amu good as I am thinking if joining and one of their reps is coming next week!! Keep the cash and have xmas or spend it and have a bonanza Xmas next year?!?!!?
www.electriciansforums.net www.electriciansforums.net

Some threads that might be handy for anybody else looking into joining one or more of the rated people type websites. Please feel free to link to other threads you found handy yourself if you found some. :)
Click to expand...
I was asked recently to check a property that “my builder” had sent a spark to quote to change all the sockets and switches in the house, he managed to talk the client into all kinds of extra work, most of it quite shocking, I.E fitted a new kitchen, it was ex- display quite shocking, fitted a bathroom and install a light switch in there, the list goes on, though he didn’t do the switches and sockets? My friend who’s a builder and myself managed to turn the place around, when we had finished I was standing in her new kitchen with her crying in my arms she was delighted. My builder covered a lot of the costs, these companies are not vetting people, they are letting criminals into people’s home by not doing the proper checks
 
1576609627528.png


It's nice to see electricians using their own websites well.

I'm gutted so many are still doing social media though. I tend to find the work going around on those sites all want mates rates and they're always a bloody friend of a friend of a friend.

But we're getting there I think. Less Check-a-Builder type stuff and more own websites is the way I want to see it go. Sod these directories off.
[automerge]1576609759[/automerge]
www.thisismoney.co.uk

Checkatrade members furious over shake-up

Tradesmen could previously list their personal phone numbers and email addresses on their Checkatrade pages for customers to contact them.
www.thisismoney.co.uk www.thisismoney.co.uk
 
Hi Dan
Have not used any but may need to soon.
My plumbers whom I have used seem to be quick at doing big jobs but don’t bother turning up for small ones!

i understand the logic but really want a preferred plumber and electrician
 
Ziggie said:
Hi Dan
Have not used any but may need to soon.
My plumbers whom I have used seem to be quick at doing big jobs but don’t bother turning up for small ones!

i understand the logic but really want a preferred plumber and electrician
Click to expand...
You can post your jobs on our forums you know. Gimme a shout when you're ready and I'll link you to them.
 
Did Yell for a while but soon kicked them into touch, got one job from them!
Had no end of hassle from Check-a-trade trying to sign me up, ended up threatening legal action if they didn't leave me alone.
Joined several local Farcebook groups to pick up some recommendations but stopped trying. All the people jumping on there seem to be struggling for work -at least one of them is at home whenever I go past their house.
All my work is word of mouth and I'm busy (present crisis aside) occasional work from my website but not much.
The best advertising is recommendation! And it's free!
 
Ratedpeople is a waste they sell their leads way too expensive for the value of the jobs. Most of the leads are sold on other sites for less eg. MyJobQuote. I had an account with Ratedpeople and it was pointless people go on Ratedpeople to get bottom prices, like one person said earlier they were jobs for rewires for £1000 loads of them. The other thing with Ratedpeople they do not roll over unused credits unless you phone them and request it, this should be automatic.

CheckaTrade need to sort out how they handle reviews. People who don't pay their bill fully shouldn't be allowed to leave feedbacks. All reviews should be verified in person before they go live.

MyJobQuote needs to have a better way for trades to communicate with clients, most times the job quote details are vague and need a couple of questions to clarify things. There reject codes are not detailed enough. Their lead prices are ok but I do think a lot of the higher price leads are fake (ones with higher job value). I do like the fact that if you dispute a lead they are normally happy to return your credits after checking to ensure your claim is genuine. They also roll over your credits automatically so if you don't use your credits you don't loose them like you would with Ratedpeople.

I did do a little with British Gas platform Local Heroes and I am sorry 20% cut was too much. It wasn't 20% of the labour but 20% of the total job so that means double VAT on your materials (20% VAT and 20% commission). The good side is it opened the door for a lot of good clients that I currently have they respect and value your service.

There goes the four that I have experienced using. By far MyJobQuote is my number one choice. The only one I would not touch again or recommend is RatedPeople.

Anyone has any experience with Which? Trusted Trader?
 
Word of mouth for the most part here. Have picked up a fair few clients responding to recommendations from local area/neighbourhood websites, which seems to be a the millennial equivalent of chatting to your neighbours and asking for recommends.

Dabbled with rated people around ten years ago during a lean spell, if it came back to that I'll go flip burgers rather than sell my skills that way. I mean paying for an opportunity to quote based on what the client thinks his job value might be. The only value would be long term client retention and his further word of mouth recommends - but lets be honest, if they go to RP and get a decent job they'll probably remember the RP site rather than the individuals details!
 
Check-A-Trade appear to be consistent..consistently annoying every trade and service paying client since since Homeserve bought that golden goose and cooked it. Spoken to so many trades from sparks to locksmiths, plumbers and painters who have found better, cheaper alternatives. Tried the budget alternatives to C-a-T when I started and spent more in fees than I earned. Race to the bottom with little chance of a repeat call. The scheme run by the local trading standards(Buy With Confidence) seems to be winning converts. Anyone else used that?
 
i must admit all my work over the years is word of mouth.
I once tried rated people but they just ripped me off, and im trying social media but im not to good with that!
 
I used a site called Bark.com where you pay to respond to leads. Use was based on some leads that my wife picked up for her dog day care business. I don’t recommend it for trades as customers appear to be graded on potential value of jobs (very flawed as only the tradesman can give a quote) plus you lose money if another tradesman responds faster. Additionally a responded to several alleged leads but no customers ever responded to confirm whether or not they had found a spark. I have some suspicions that leads were fictitious just to use up points I’d paid for. Very dodgy business model so steer clear. More fool me!
 
i tried rated people for a while. was winning leads for small jobs, i.e. a £40 call-out 60 miles away. only upside was if i claimed a credit for a £4 lead, RP gave me a lead credit that i could use to buy a £20 (rewire) lead. they soon got wise to this though, and stopped it. they're all scams, ripping us off to line their own pockets.
 
New posts

Reply to CheckaTrade | MyBuilder | RatedPeople | TrustaTrader etc - Who's with what and why? in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Similar Threads

S
MyBuilder and other Electricians support thread.
Hi THIS POST IS FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF BRINGING LEGITIMATE ELECTRICIANS TOGETHER WHO HAVE PROFILES ON MYBUILDER RatedPeople AND OTHER SIMILAR...
Replies
15
Views
3K
Gavin John Hyde
Gavin John Hyde
Dan
  • Article
UK Tiling Forum | UK Tilers Forum - UK Tiles Forums
Been playing around with a fair few blogs for a while related to this topic. UK Tiling Forum that is. UK Tiling Forum - The Tiling Forum for the...
    • Like
Replies
1
Views
5K
Dan
Dan
Dan
TilersForums.com Directory Listings are getting business in and ranking in Google, look....
TilersForums.com Directory Listings are getting business in and ranking in Google, look...
Replies
0
Views
989
Dan
Dan
Gavin John Hyde
British Gas Local Heroes
I received an email today telling me about this 'scheme' from British Gas called local heroes, basically they advertise and customers ring up or...
Replies
7
Views
5K
Squid
S

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc

YOUR Unread Posts

Tags

advice aus cable circuit course earth electric electrical electrician hello led light lighting lights looking new please question rcd socket supply switch testing training wiring
This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by untold.media Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top